Americans’ Sense of Well-being Drops in 2017

Crowds are seen at Times Square in New York City. A new survey suggests Amerians sense of well-being is dropping. (WikiCommons)

All About America November 9, 2017

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Crowds are seen at Times Square in New York City. A new survey suggests Amerians sense of well-being is dropping. (WikiCommons)

Americans’ sense of well-being has dropped, a new poll suggests.

According to the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index, the sense of well-being dropped from a score of 62.1 points in 2016 to 61.5 so far in 2017. The index is measured on a scale of 100 points scale based on five elements.

Those include having a purpose in life, having a support group of friends and family, being financially stable, liking where you live and being healthy enough to get daily tasks done.

While a drop of less than one point might not appear to be much, Gallup says the drop from 2016 to 2017 was “statistically significant and meaningfully large.”

Gallup said the dropoff was largely due to declines in emotional health, having a social network and feeling a purpose in life.

“In terms of emotional health, the percentage of adults who report experiencing significant worry on any given day is up, as is the percentage who report having little interest or pleasure in doing things at least some of the time,” Gallup wrote in a news release.

Fewer Americans agreed that their friends and family “provide them with positive energy every day.” Fewer also said there was a “leader in their life who makes them enthusiastic about the future and that they like what they do each day.”

“Whether you’re Republican or Democrat, there’s an increased probability you’ll be in relationships that are more contentious,” said Dan Witters, the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index research director in an interview with Quartzy. “There’s going to be more arguing and more negativity than there used to be around the dinner table. That’s going to hold true regardless of whether you’re pro- or anti-Trump. But that swirling animosity, mixing it up at the dinner table, that’s real.”

Gallup found Democrats had the largest drop in well-being, dropping by .9. Republicans were unchanged.

Minorities and women also saw drops, with women leading the way by dropping 1.1 points. Blacks and Hispanics also declined, and both whites and Asians saw drops, but less than Blacks and Hispanics.

Gallup surveyed more than 135,000 American adults in all 50 states between Jan. 2 and Sept. 30, 2017.